When It Arrived
By C.L. O’Dell
For Lucie Brock-Broido
It was delivered to me in the snow.
The kids were all sleeping
in separate corners of the house
like unfound crystals.
I wiped the flakes off,
holding what I thought could save me.
My neighbors were afraid
I was disappearing. The branches above
trembled with hidden birds.
I didn’t know. I read and kept reading
the label
until you heard me.
Source: Poetry (January 2020)